The BSA is pleased to announce its cohort of Community Leaders for 2023/24. The twelve individuals have all been selected because of their passion for working with groups of people who are underrepresented in science. They all have established connections within their communities and will be well placed to work as ambassadors of science engagement within their networks.
The BSA’s Community Leaders programme has been running since 2018, making this the sixth cohort of Leaders to take part in the programme. Each of the Leaders will be offered training, support and mentorship over the course of a year, as well as funding to run extended science activities within their community.
Find out more about the Community Leaders programme
The 2023/24 Community Leaders met for the first time on Monday 16 October as part of the first in-person workshop. The session gave the Leaders a chance to get to know one another, as well as find out more about their organisations and their motivations behind joining the Leaders programme.
They also heard from one of the Community Leaders alum, Luke Wakefield from VICTA, who spoke about his experiences from the programme and how it has inspired him to embed science engagement into his group’s activity throughout the year.
The Leaders will attend several in-person and virtual workshops over the next year providing an opportunity to share ideas and updates from their own communities, as well as gain new skills and knowledge from the BSA training programme.
Alison Purbrick, Preston Park
Ali is a peer support specialist at the Wellbeing hub at Preston Park, a holistic mental health support service in Brighton. As well as supporting a caseload of clients with one-to-one coaching support, she is also responsible for facilitating activities, arts and crafts, Singing for Fun, Dancing for Fun, the young person's group (18-35) and running activities for lots of themed weeks, including science, neurodiversity, and body confidence, to name just a few. The hub is open every day of the year and they strive to promote meaningful connections, mindful activity, keeping active, and a love of lifelong learning.
Barbara Czyznikowska, Project Polska
Barbara is the Founder and Chair of Project Polska. She is an experienced community strategist with professional practice developed across public sector, academia, and non-governmental organisations, where she has been leading and supporting projects on public dialogue, community development, health equity and grant funding.
Barbara is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is an ardent advocate of science communication. Barbara’s interest lies in policy focused research with an emphasis on creating community cohesiveness, particularly around issues that affect the health and wellbeing of underserved communities.
Kerry MacKay, The GRAB Trust
The GRAB Trust (Group for Recycling in Argyll and Bute) is all about reducing waste to help protect the beautiful local environment of Argyll & Bute in Scotland. As the Beaches and Marine Litter Project Education Officer, Kerry loves sharing the wonders of the beaches and oceans with schools and the community. Beach cleans are her bread and butter and talking about how we can look after the amazing local surroundings by reducing our waste. Kerry is also a keen scuba diver in her free time and loves sharing stories from her bubble blowing adventures and helping everyone enjoy and understand the nature we have, and how it’s all connected.
Oriyomi Okeyinka, Lifegate Outreach Centre
By volunteering as the science and engineering innovation outreach coordinator at the Lifegate Outreach Centre, a development charity organisation in Walsall, Oriyomi makes a big difference to her community.
Oriyomi is a civil engineer, and she is very passionate about inspiring children, young people, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds, and local community residents to engage in science and engineering. She achieves this through her work at the Lifegate Outreach Centre, where she writes proposals for impactful science engagement activities.
Wardeh Al Nasir, Community Thriving Together
Syrian refugee, Wardeh, is the founder and one of the directors of Community Thriving Together CIC. She has been living in the UK for five years now, where she has gained lots of experience supporting charities and community projects.
Wardeh has volunteered with the NHS, The Syrian Association Rethink Rebuild, the Ardwick and Longsight MutuL Aid Group and further voluntary work for supporting individuals and communities. She has the skills and passion for working with communities, which is why she wanted to join the Community Leaders programme.
Immaculata Nnabuko, Hand of Solace
Immaculata is the founder of Hand of Solace. She is a dedicated social worker working for Aberdeen City Council, with a decade of experience working with children.
With a passion for making a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable children, Immaculata established Hand of Solace as a platform to provide support, guidance, and solace to those in need. Hand of Solace is a compassionate, charitable organisation that aims to create a safe and nurturing environment and support for children facing various challenges. They offer a range of services and resources to empower and uplift young people especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds, ensuring they have the opportunity to thrive and succeed.
Alison Jones, Community Little Hulton
Community Little Hulton is a local charity based in Salford, Greater Manchester, that is run by the residents of Little Hulton, for the residents of Little Hulton.
Alison works with the charity to build STEM activities into their youth activities, and last year ran an intergenerational event to celebrate British Science Week. Alison is looking to build more science-based activities into the charity’s events to engage, inspire and amuse the local communities.
Julie Walters-Nisbett, Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School
Julie loves teaching science – she has been teaching secondary science for over 23 years! Julie strongly believes that everything can be related to science. As the co-founder and lead teacher of science for the Phoenix Agenda Supplementary School, Julie enjoys teaching Black students and the community about the importance of STEM.
Last year, Phoenix held their second Science Fair at the African Caribbean Centre, Leicester. The students presented on their own science projects, and members of the community who work in STEM professions spoke to them about entry into STEM careers.
Lara Daniel, Excel Beyond Barriers
Lara is a community leader based in a multicultural community. Her work is around providing opportunity for young people in underrepresented communities to excel beyond barriers through empowerment, mentoring, training, and career development projects.
Tahera Khanam, Better We
In response to the aftermath of COVID-19, Tahera set up Better We CIC, helping to reconnect people with each other to improve social, physical and mental wellbeing. Being the winner of Be Proud Awards 2023 for increasing skills and employment within the community, Tahera strives to increase educational skills as well as providing a variety of services to improve community wellbeing. With a focus on inclusivity, she coordinates STEM events, British Science Week sessions, and youth, supplementary, homework, and holiday clubs, aiming to create an enjoyable, diverse learning environment to enhance STEM education and opportunities for children.
Shamila Younas, Creativity Box
Shamila is a community leader based in Oldham. One of her passions is to develop activities that will inspire children to understand the basic concepts in science in a fun and friendly environment. Oldham is a disadvantaged area and Shamila aims to inspire as many children as possible to get involved in science activities and to inspire them to develop a career in science.
Carey Osborne, CETMA
Carey, a Registered General Nurse with an interest in mental health, works as project officer at CETMA (Community Engagement, Technology, Media & Arts). CETMA is a social enterprise that provides social engagement, training, health and well-being through the development of unique sustainable projects for individuals, organisations and businesses. Founded originally as Llanellitown.com in 2008, CETMA has steadily evolved throughout the years into becoming a prominent presence in the local community. CETMA is a non-profit organisation hoping to expand to international projects over the coming years.
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